This essay reconstructs the rise of the often-misunderstood term mas occasionatus (an imperfect, deformed, castrated female), including the Arabic translation of Aristotle’s De animalibus that formed the basis for Michael Scot’s Latin version. It discusses the dilemma that the Virgin Mary, as an imperfect female, could give birth to the most perfect man, Christ. It then shows how Christine’s sexual metamorphoses in La mutacion de Fortune, in which she becomes un homme naturel parfaict, dramatically challenges decades of Scholastic misogyny.
Earl Jeffrey Richards (Wed,) studied this question.